Biomed Central has announced a YouTube channel for videos related to Biomed Central articles and to open access publishing. See the announcement here: http://tinyurl.com/23v4jq. [SD]

The Assocation of Resource Libraries (ARL) website “Freely Accessible Institute Resources” (FAIR) includes links to several resources, including a SPEC toolkit which contains “the most valuable, up-to-date information on the latest issues of concern to libraries and librarians today.They are the result of a systematic survey of ARL member libraries on a particular topic related to current practice in the field. Each SPEC Kit contains an executive summary of the survey results; survey questions with tallies and selected comments; the best representative documents from survey participants, such as policies, procedures, handbooks, guidelines, Web sites, records, brochures, and statements; and a selected reading list-both print and online sources-containing the most current literature available on the topic for further study.” http://www.arl.org/sc/institute/instres.shtml [scb]

The Toolkit for Trainers, a free, downloadable training curriculum that instructors can use to help older adults find reliable health information online, is now available on the NIHSeniorHealth website. Developed by the National Institute on Aging, the toolkit comes with lesson plans, student handouts, web-searching exercises, and glossaries which instructors can customize to fit students’ skill levels and interests. An introductory video acquaints trainers with the curriculum, and trainer tools help instructors gear their teaching toward the older learner. Designed for beginning and intermediate students of the Web, the curriculum will be a welcome addition to computer classes at libraries, senior centers, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers. [da]

A CDC podcast on use of family history in pediatric settings is now available at: http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/player.asp?f=7307 The podcast features Dr. Paula Yoon and Dr. Tracy Trotter, and is intended for the general public. If you want to capture your own family history, you can read about the US Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative at http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/

This initiatve includes a web-based tool that helps users organize family history information and then print it out for presentation to the family doctor. In addition, the tool helps users save their family history information to their own computer and even share family history information with other family members. The tool can be accessed at https://familyhistory.hhs.gov/. [scb]

The CDC/ATSDR announce the pending availability of appropriated fiscal year (FY) 2008 funds for the CDC/ATSDR Public Health Conference Support Program.

This program addresses the “Healthy People 2010″ focus areas of Access to Quality Health Services; Arthritis; Osteoporosis; Chronic Back Conditions; Cancer; Diabetes; Disability and Secondary Conditions; Educational and Community-Based Programs; Environmental Health; Food Safety; Health Communication; Heart Disease and Stroke; Injury and Violence Prevention; Maternal, Infant and Child Health; Medical Product Safety; Mental Health and Mental Disorders; Nutrition and Overweight; Physical Activity and Fitness; Public Health Infrastructure; Respiratory Diseases; and Vision and Hearing.

The purpose of conference support funding is to provide partial support for specific non-Federal conferences in the areas of health promotion and disease prevention, education programs, and applied research. Hospitals, colleges and universities are included inthe list of eligible applicants. See the full announcement at http://www.cdc.gov/od/pgo/funding/HM08-801.htm [scb]

Michelle Kraft, author of the Krafty Librarian blog, provides tips for how to impove access to hospital libraries. “I feel it is more important than ever for hospital libraries to get online and to be as available as possible to our users. To me that means increasing your online presence. Hospital libraries in the past have had problems getting an online presence. Today, there are too many opportunities and resources not to have online presence.” Read her tips at http://kraftylibrarian.com/2007/11/access-hospital-libraries.html scb

We have developed a short survey to gather feedback about the usefulness of the NN/LM MidContinental Region (MCR) website (http://nnlm.gov/mcr) in your work over the last year.

We would like feedback from everyone in the region, so please feel free to complete the survey regardless of how frequently you visit the website.

The survey has 8 questions and will take less than 5 minutes to complete. The web address for the survey is:http://snipr.com/mcrwebsurvey.

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the Fogarty International Center, both part of the National Institutes of Health, jointly announce the 2007 David E. Barmes Global Health Lecture. Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) will speak on “Climate Change and Health.” The lecture, which will be videocast, is being held on Monday, December 10, 2007, 3:00 p.m. ET at Masur Auditorium, NIH Building 10. The lecture will be videocast at http://videocast.nih.gov/ Read the entire NIH News Release is online at: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/nov2007/nidcr-26.htm.[scb]

An article from TechSoup discusses how to make the most of your web page real estate. Visit TechSoup to read the online article. http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/page6090.cfm

Our government also has a website called Usability.gov that offers lots of information for developing a user-friendly web site. http://www.usability.gov [rb]

Let your patrons know how easy it is to stay up-to-date on the topics of their choice.

JournalBot is a free online service that lets you choose from a list of medical journals and topics to which you can subscribe in your RSS reader. No registration necessary. Visit the website to learn how easy it is to subscribe to a topic. http://www.harvey-semester.de/php/jbot/index.php?lang=en [RB]